Inspiration at Remick History Museum

View of the farm

When some friends invited me along to a Harvest Festival at the Remick Museum in Tamworth, NH last weekend I jumped at the chance to visit a quaint, still-functioning farm in my “home-sphere” of New Hampshire. I grew even more psyched when I read about the herb garden at the farm and history of the homestead as the residence of a country doctor who served his community in the mid-19th century using primarily herbal medicine to treat the ills of the village and surrounding areas.

Ever since I arrived back in the Shire in mid-July I’ve been oh-so inspired by the plant life of my native biosphere. It feels like a whole new world has opened up to me; plants and weeds along the roadside that I never paid any heed to are suddenly recognizable friends. Mullein, in particular, has caught my attention, and I even had cause to use it upon my return as Abbey had a badly (really badly) sprained ankle. Alongside a Solomon’s Seal infusion taken several times a day, and an Arnica and St. John’s Wort infused oil applied topically, a fresh Mullein leaf wrapped around the affected ankle brought down the swelling significantly in just 24 hours. With repeated application, alongside physical therapy, the injury healed with relative rapidity. But it was the Mullein plant that kept popping out at me, showing up even in the most unexpected and surprising of places, even in the form of a mural on the side of a Portland, Maine building, that astonished me. I couldn’t escape the plant for a few weeks there, evidently when it was really needed to aid my friend who was in tremendous pain. What’s funnier still is that I can’t necessarily find a logical reason why the Mullein would help her sprain the way it did; there does not seem to be a particular constituent in Mullein that makes it stand out as an anti-inflammatory or tendon-mender – but it was soothing and worked like a charm nonetheless.

Gorgeous sage

Anyhow, herbal inspiration has abounded since my return home, but with working full-time and the super exciting Inglenook project well underway, I’ll admit that my herbal studies have been on the back burner in a pretty big way. That is until the Harvest Festival last weekend.

To see dozens of plants and herbs that I’ve either only seen in books or growing in Charleston thriving in my homeland was profoundly exciting and moving to me. Being in Charleston for my herbal introduction, the fact that plants and herbs tend to thrive there seems no surprise – it’s warm and humid and a decidedly lush part of the world. But to see Arnica, Lavender, Sage, Lemon Balm, Chamomile, Borage and many, many other wonderful herbs loving life in the harsher and lately, early-frost temperatures of New England warmed my heart.

Of course I knew intellectually that most of the herbs I learned of grow just fine up here in Zone 5A; after all, master herbalist Rosemary Gladstar is just a few hours west in Barre, Vermont, and she grows all manner of traditional herbs. And of course, the climate of New England is not all that different from much of Western Europe, where many of these herbs’ medicinal attributes were first discovered (in the European tradition). Ok, so I “knew” all that… but I was still blown away by seeing all these allies in the flesh, so to speak, in my home environment.

Happy chamomile ready to be harvested

Thriving Arnica

And even better, I spoke at length with one of the herbalists at the farm and they have a whole series of fall and early-winter herbal classes going on that I’m totally going to get involved in. In mid-October there’s a “Root Fest”, where we’ll learn how to harvest the medicinal roots found in their garden and in the wild. We’ll make some medicine, eat a yummy lunch, and dig in the dirt… not a bad way to spend a fall day!

I feel very grateful to have found the Remick Museum right in my backyard and am excited to learn all that I can, baby-herbalist that I still am, from Carol Felice, the museum’s resident herbalist.

So cheers! I hope everyone who reads this had a wonderful summer and is finding inspiration everyday in their life.

Peace,

Jess xo

Beautiful borage

Gorgeous, fern-like Yarrow

As I was taking a walk this morning along Charleston’s inlets and harbors, I espied from the edge of a dock this crop of lowly clams hanging out amongst some bright green grasses and salty mud. The low tide exposed this little scene, and as truly mundane as it was, it sparked something inside me that said, “This, too, is beautiful”. This photo was the inspiration for the quote I just published, which Pat included as the cover piece for last month’s herbal notes. Since reading that quote a few weeks ago, these sightings of the mundane and yet the magnificently beautiful have been everywhere. When one chooses to be present, when one stops to actually behold the magnificence of the world around us, we realize we are constantly surrounded by staggering and astonishing beauty and perfection. I so often get wrapped up in my to-do lists, worries, and fears, but when I can pause for even a few minutes and let me eyes really see what is before me, those tiresome preoccupations of the ego fall away and the world as it really is – perfect and full of unparalleled beauty – emerges, as if a camera lens is allowing the real world to come into focus.

The further I w…

The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that God is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, and music is both in the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe. Yes, God is under the porch as well as on top of the mountain, and joy is in both the front row and the bleachers, if we are willing to be where we are.

– Mark Nepo 

When Life Gives You Almonds, Make Almond… Stuff!

Re-inspired by an herbal weekend a few weeks ago where Pat walked us through making our own almond milk, I decided to give it another go. I had memories of making it several years ago and enjoying the process, and even more so the end product, but I think was left feeling like maybe it was a bit more trouble than it was worth. I had vague memories of a big bowl and a terrible wet, almond mess and all this crazy wet almond stuff that I had no idea what to do with; not to mention the struggle of extracting all the milk through three layers of cheesecloth, only to discover that some meal escaped and made its way into the milk… you get the idea. So then I relapsed into buying almond milk at the store. But then recently I was at Whole Foods and wanted to know if my almond milk was really just almond milk, and lo and behold, it was not. It had about seven ingredients and contained things that I assumed to be emulsifiers and thickening agents and maybe even preservatives – and it was then that I realized that I just had to bite the darn bullet and go back to making my own. But I had a new trick up my sleeve to make the whole thing so much easier – I was going to procure a nut milk bag. These handy things are cheap, reusable (unlike cheesecloth most of the time), easy to clean and make the whole milk-extraction process worlds easier.

So sure enough, I got my milk bag and bulk bag of raw almonds and set about making almond milk. Now I completely forgot to soak the almonds overnight, nor did I peel them, but the milk came out fantastic, so no worries if you too forget to soak. I was making small batches with my wee Bella Cucina Magic-Bullet-esque blender, and I think that too helped a bit because I was squeezing the milk out in smaller quantities. When I was done extracting and had about a 1/2 gallon of almond milk, I added a pinch of sea salt and vanilla extract, and voila, beautiful, super-yummy almond milk with no thickeners, preservatives or ingredients I can’t pronounce.

Next came the question of what in the heck I was supposed to do with all the damp almond meal I had from extracting about 1 lb. of almonds. Here comes the fun part. It turns out, you really have to dry that almond meal before you can do much with it, and to do this you need to scatter it on a cookie sheet in a thin layer and bake the heck out of it (on the lowest oven temperature) – I’m going to say it took mine a good 3-4 hours to thoroughly dry out. Then you place the dry meal into the blender again to make it a bit more flour-like (don’t over blend or it may start to make almond butter), then put it into a glass, airtight container and you have almond flour.

So then I went on Pinterest to gather some ideas of what to make out of this almond meal/flour. I found a recipe for almond meal crackers (yum!) that went something like this:

• 1 cup almond meal/flour
• 1 tbsp ground flax
• 1 tbsp rosemary (fresh or dried, chopped finely)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• sea salt

Almond and Rosemary yumminess

I didn’t have any flax on hand, so I decided to give the recipe a go without it. I spread the resultant aromatic mixture onto a cookie sheet and baked at 350 for about 10-15 minutes, until I noticed the almond-mixture getting quite golden. What came out was in no way ever going to become crackers – it was more of a crumbly toasted almond meal. So this afternoon I was needing a mid-afternoon snack and decided to have some arugula with the almond/rosemary concoction on top (almost like you would croutons, maybe about 1 tbsp), with some Bragg’s Vinaigrette. It was absolutely phenomenal! It made the salad a bit hardier and the flavor of almond and rosemary combined beautifully with the arugula. So even though I was bummed that I didn’t have my almond crackers, I just rolled with it, and what I ended up making was pretty great too.

Today I’m attempting to make almond flour and coconut chocolate chip cookies, which seem promising (yes, I tasted the dough). I have the dough refrigerating at the moment, but I’ll if they turn out well I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

The point of all this was, first, almond milk (and coconut milk, I just made some this afternoon) really are super simple and quick to make at home. It probably took me 10 minutes to whip up a half-gallon batch. And with the nut bags the process of extraction is a no-brainer. The second point is that I notice that as I make more and more from scratch in my home, I have more interesting byproducts that I have no idea what to do with. And, being a bit of a pioneer woman at heart (I am from New England, after all, I think it’s in my blood), I don’t want to waste any resource. So it becomes a great opportunity to experiment and see what you can do with all these new ingredients; some will be flops, but some may become your personal staples! In our culture of <immense> waste, it feels almost quaint to learn how to utilize every part of, let’s say, a chicken (I’m thinking of my Mum’s amazing and magical homemade chicken soup that uses absolutely every single part of a chicken and is so strengthening) or almonds, or even broccoli (I used to throw away the stems, I’m embarrassed to say, now I dice them fine and sauté with olive oil, garlic and lemon and they’re so tasty – thanks for that idea, Wodes!) in some fashion. But this holistic way of viewing food can be a way we can all contribute to reducing our food waste in this country and I think it’s neat to think of us heralding back to our long-ago ancestors who knew all these things practically by osmosis. No cave woman would ever throw away a broccoli stem because its texture was slightly less pleasing than the heads and florets! And neither should we! While I believe in abundance, I also believe in feeling grateful to Mother Earth for all that she provides, and for me, that’s translating into giving her miracles the respect and honor of using it in its entirety, inconvenient parts and all.

With warmth, love and smiles,

Jess xo

 

Either you’re in love or you’re in fear…

Either you’re in love or you’re in fear; when love moves out, fear moves in.

This is a quote that opened our class today, and I didn’t write down who said this, so I will get that and give him credit. What followed was a discussion on how healing cannot occur if fear is present. The cause of the fear must be found and worked through before true healing can begin. Perhaps replacing fear with love is part of the healing process. So check in, tune in… see if your heart, spirit, gut, brain, soul and energy is radiating fear or love. Any kind of stress is fear. I’m worried about money right now and it feels like a black parasite is eating through my gut. So I’m trying to stay aware of that fear (instead of pushing it down), acknowledge it, embrace it, then set it free. When I do this, I can almost feel the love come back in and fill in the hole the fear was residing in, like an ocean wave filling in a depression in the sand. This takes practice though, and more than that, it takes the willingness to look at that fear (or that uneasy feeling, that sense of anxiousness – sometimes you only have a vague sense of discomfort before you really look) and say hello to it, head-on. This seems scary at first but what you’re really doing is putting a name to something that feels enormous and overwhelming. Once it’s identified, more often than not it’s brought right back down to scale. When you really put that fear in perspective, does it really matter that much? If you can zoom out far enough to gain perspective (sometimes it feels like I have to zoom out to deep space to feel perspective on my issues), you’ll see that in the scope of all that you are – stardust, spirit, soul, radiant energy, beauty, light…. does that fear really have any place inside the incredible being that you are? The answer is no. Embrace your fear and love it, melt it into something lovable with the force of your true nature.

With much love and warmth,

Jess

Building my apothecary. Nettles, chicory root and chamomile.

Materia Medica for Blue Vervain

Verbena hastata

Botanical Name:  Verbena hastata

Common Name(s): Vervain, Blue Vervain, Wild Hyssop, Simpler’s Joy

Plant Description: Clump-forming perennial with a stiff, upright habit, grows 2-4’ tall (generally) on square, hairy stems which typically branch above. Features candelabra-like inflorescences of erect, slender, pencil-like spokes of tiny, tubular, 5-lobed, densely-packed purple/blue flowers (1/8” wide).

Where Found:  Wet meadows, wet river bottomlands, stream banks, slough peripheries, fields. Best picked right before flowering.

Parts Used: Aerial parts (leaves, flowering heads)

Taste: Bitter, Acrid

Actions: Relaxant nervine and diaphoretic (induces perspiration), digestive stimulant, galactagogue (promotes lactation), vulnerary (heals wounds), endocrine/thyroid tonic

System Affinity: Nervous System, neck and spine, sex glands and hormones

Constituents: Glycosides (verbenalin and verbenin), alkaloid (unidentified), bitter principle, volatile oil, tannin, small amount of saponins which allow for cooling energy.

Energetics: Cooling and drying

Uses: Traditionally used to strengthen the nervous system, nervous exhaustion, dispels depression. Effective in treating migraines and headaches of the nervous and bilious kind. Also used for disorders of the liver and for gallstones. Can increase flow of breast milk and promote the onset of menstruation. Wonderful for “Type A” people who tend to hold tension in their neck and shoulders.

Helps with both short-term nervous systems conditions as well as long-term endocrine dysfunctions, especially for hypothyroid.

Diaphoretic qualities make it appropriate for hot flashes/night sweats where there is persistent fluid loss.

Fantastic for anger before a period, usually accompanied by cramps.

Combines with/for: Combines well with other “happy” herbs like Monkeyflower, Linden, St. John’s Wort or Lavender. Can be combined with peppermint to make the flavor more palatable for children.  For early-stage viral infections, combine with Elder, Peppermint and Yarrow to induce perspiration.

A good supporting or action herb for insomnia for those who fall asleep easily but wake up and can’t return to sleep. Combine with California Poppy for this type of insomnia.

Combines with Solomon Seal to treat TMJ (as tincture or poultice) along with a nervine such as Kava, taken separately.

Combines with Passionflower and Red Clover to help sleep through the night.

Excellent with Dandelion Root for those who are angry, Type A. Anger is held in the liver; you get the alterative and nervine.

Constitution: Best for those with hot and damp constitutions, as well as out of balance Pittas who find themselves argumentative, exhausted, edgy and stressed out. This herb seems particularly useful for Pittas or Pitta-imbalances in any dosha as V. hastata is wonderful for sensitive souls who feel easily overwhelmed and tend to nervousness and restlessness which often manifests as constriction, cramps and poor digestion (digestion being the seat of Pitta). Excellent for people who are intolerant of shortcomings of others and self. Thin, strong-willed but lack stamina to sustain effort. “Metabolic brittleness” for those who are too intense but brittle and easily undermined.

Contraindications: Pregnancy (uterine stimulant) and known to cause nausea in large doses, especially in people with irritated livers.

Preparation:

Tincture: Best prepared with fresh flowering tops of plant at a 1:5 potency.  1-5 drops of fresh plant tincture or up to 20 drops of the dried plant tincture. *Tincture can turn into a green gel after a while – efficacy is not affected.

Tea: Does very well made into tea, but often has to be mixed with other herbs for palatability: 1 tsp. of dried herb per 1 cup water.

Oil: Made into liniment and/or salve to be worked into tense shoulders and neck, especially.

Other: Can be used as a liniment to relax knots and provide relief for nerve pain.

Homeopathic Profile: Used in homeopathy to treat mental exhaustion, depression, nervous irritation and even epilepsy.

Flower Essence Profile: Used to calm agitated outbreaks of anger and shifts one’s emotional state to one of “sweet calm”. As the essence says of itself, “I AM sweet calm emanating from a heart aligned with my life purpose.” Quells impatience. Bach’s FE remedy for high-strung perfectionists who hold high standards for themselves and others.

Personal Experience:  In sitting with the herb I find it unassuming and humble somehow, despite its colorful and pretty appearance in situ.  It seems comforting in a subtle, earthy sort of way. Its scent is very mild, and reminds me a bit of earth and mushrooms.

Infused for 10 minutes (1 tsp Vervain to 1.25 cups water) and it was exceedingly bitter. Adding 1 tsp of honey made more palatable. Flavor is earthy, rich, pungent and tastes of bitter mushrooms. Felt almost instantly grounded, perhaps by the very earthy taste. Perhaps it was steeped too long, flavor was overwhelming. Maybe try steeping for only 5 minutes next time?

Took short nap after drinking infusion and woke up feeling decidedly more sure of myself and relaxed. Feeling continued into the following day.

Made a lighter infusion of Blue Vervain and peppermint a couple days later, using only 1/2 tsp. of the herb to 1.5 cups water, only infusing the Blue Vervain for 3 minutes. I added the peppermint (1 tbsp) to see if it helped to balance the bitter, acrid taste of the Vervain, which it did. I also wanted an infusion that would be relaxing but invigorating, so the peppermint felt appropriate. It worked beautifully – the vervain flavor and essence was very much present in the infusion, but the peppermint stepped in and mellowed the bitter flavor perfectly. Emotionally, I felt supported, grounded, calmed and more sure of myself. I was relaxed but not sedated.  Spiritually, I feel that Vervain helps reveal my Presence to my ego and helps the ego and its agendas fall away, revealing the more expansive yet centered me that I know is in there at all times, but that sometimes gets obscured by anxiety, expectations and ideals of perfection.

 

“See Also” and Reference Sources:

A Modern Herbal by Mrs. Grieve: http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/v/vervai08.html

Bear Medicine Herbals, Kiva Rose: http://bearmedicineherbals.com/a-touchstone-the-blessed-verbena.html

Tree Frog Farm, Flower Essences: http://www.treefrogfarm.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=11

The New Age Herbalist, Richard Mabey

Matthew Wood, http://www.naturasophia.com/Principles.html

Kicking Caffeine to the Curb

Morning Sunlight

Let me just get this out there – quitting caffeine stinks. It’s no fun. At all. I’ve been trying for the better part of a month to reduce my intake of caffeine, which I primarily get through my morning ritual of two glorious cups of coffee, for the purposes of improving my health and energy levels. And to say that it’s one of the harder things I’ve tackled, health-wise, would be devastatingly true. The first few days weren’t that bad. I went from having two cups of coffee to one… so far, so good. Then after a couple of days of that I switched to two cups of black tea. Even that was okay; not great, but I survived, no headaches, etc. Then one morning  a few days later I awoke, feeling optimistic that I could switch to Tee-chino, which has zero caffeine, and I’d be fine, since I’d been doing so well thus far. Not so. An hour after waking up and two (yummy but not coffee) mugs of Tee-chino later, all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed and sleep for another 10 hours. I had lots of work to do, though, so I sleepily got ready for my day and sat down to my computer to get some awesome writing work done. It was like torture. Brain fog like you wouldn’t believe. I couldn’t string two coherent words together in my mind, let alone whole, complete, witty and somewhat intelligent sentences! It was brutal. So I made myself a cup of black tea, and 20 minutes later I felt halfway human, halfway intelligent.

Fast forward another couple of weeks and the struggle continues. I am now down to two cups of decaf coffee made with chicory with only 1 minute scoop of caffeinated coffee between the two cups. That is just-barely enough caffeine to give me the slightest pep in the morning, but I have no splitting headaches (a side effect I experienced on my zero-caffeine days) and I do not feel anxious, jittery or wired. But I seem to be having trouble getting past this stage of the game. I think I’m just going to be kind and gentle to myself, though, and  just stay at this stage for a while, until something in me says it’s time to decrease the caffeine again.

Now let’s just get one thing clear – it’s not like I was a coffee maniac. I didn’t drink it all day long like some people do, and I never even drank it after 10am (at the latest!), but I  have drunk it consistently since I was 13 or so, owing to the fact that my Mum owned a kick-ass little espresso shop where I found the delights in all kinds of delectable coffee and espresso drinks… and got hooked on the thrill. Now, 15 years later, I was/am suffering from pretty much non-stop, 24-hr a day fatigue. I realized one day about a month ago that enough was enough. I’ve known about adrenal fatigue for several years now and am pretty darn sure I have it. Tired all day long until 5 or 6pm, then feel moderately awake until about 9, then tired again? Check. Allergies? Check. Wake up in the morning after a full-nights rest feeling like you stayed up all night? Check. The list goes on and on. And one of the things that seriously contributes to adrenal fatigue is caffeine. Why? Because the “energy” surge that you feel after downing a yummy cup of coffee is actually your body being pushed over the hormonal edge into fight or flight mode, which, assuming there are no saber-tooth tigers nearby, translates into feeling anxious, jittery, hyper-focused, hyper-aware and all around slightly more productive. But this day in and day out roller-coaster ride of hormones and unnecessary stress eventually tuckers you out, from a cellular, nervous and endocrine-system level. So you become more and more exhausted, and soon the caffeine that used to give you such a rush simply makes you able to function, and once it wears off the fatigue is wretched.  The upside is, given enough time without caffeine, the body will eventually re-stabalize and your natural energy will return, apparently in spades. This is what I’m looking forward to (especially the “spades” part) and holding out for.

Part of my impetus for quitting caffeine was also because, as we’re learning in the Herbal Apprenticeship, anything that has long-term effects on the nervous system, as caffeine most certainly does, eventually hampers your body to heal itself. And once the disorder becomes chronic and goes to the endocrine system, the immune system and working condition of the body is severely compromised. I hope that in my future herbal practice, if I need to recommend to someone to also quit caffeine, that I can draw upon this <painful> experience to help my clients through this tough time, as well as give them hope for the energy that lies on the other side of this.

I’ll keep you all posted, and I hope that I can post in the (near) future and tell you that I’m off caffeine 100% and that I feel better than ever. Stay tuned!

Warmly,

Jess

Rosemary, Ginger and Lemon Tea

Ginger, Rosemary and Lemon

I ate my lunch too fast. We were just learning this past weekend about the digestive system and how 70% of digestion occurs in the mouth. That means that we all need to chew, chew and chew some more. Basically, chew the food until it in no way resembles what you originally put into your mouth. Yes, it takes some getting used to. I find I don’t really care much for the food after I’ve been chewing it for the proper length of time, but I have faith that I’ll become accustomed to it. Basically, Americans are really good at chewing a few times and then throwing the food, only partially masticated, down our gullets to our awaiting stomachs who balk at this undigested gruel and rebel with things like indigestion, belching and flatulence. Not to mention the extra wear and tear on our liver and kidneys who have to constantly work over-time trying to make sense out of this un-chewed food. So please, be kind to your tummy, and chew at least 40 times. Since I failed miserably at this myself at lunchtime today (Monday! Deadlines! Stress!), and was feeling a little uncomfortable after lunch, I decided to make this warming, digestive tea to try and make amends to my tum.

And so here’s what I did:

Rosemary, Ginger and Lemon Tea

• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped into small-ish pieces + 1 tsp rosemary (fresh or dried*) + 1 lemon slice
• Decoct the ginger root for 5 minutes (simmer), covered, then turn off heat.
• Add the rosemary, cover and infuse for 10 minutes.
• Strain, pour into favorite mug, squeeze fresh lemon, enjoy.

Note: This tea is not for the faint of heart. It’s pretty intense. If you want a milder tea, only decoct the ginger for 2 minutes or so. Alternatively, you can omit the rosemary all together and just make a ginger and lemon tea, which would be awesome as well.

Ginger and rosemary after being decocted and infused.

This is perfect for chilly winter days when the meal you’ve just eaten is sitting like lead in your tummy, and you need a little bit of warming and revitalization. The rosemary will pick you up a bit (and help with headaches, if you’ve got one), the ginger is soothing and aids in digestion, and the lemon is cleansing and astringent, thus lending a decided freshness to the completed tea.

*Rosemary, or any herb for that matter, retains its energetic imprint and personality even after harvesting, which is what allows it to turn into medicine in our bodies. That energy becomes lessened the older an herb is; this goes for all food and plant life. So, generally speaking, if you have access to herbs right out of the ground or fresh, that’s awesome because they’re going to lend more energy than their older counterparts. That said, I used dried organic rosemary in this tea and it was delicious. Would it have been better with fresh rosemary? You betcha!  One of the first lessons that’s becoming clear to me learning about herbal medicine is not to put too much pressure on yourself to always use fresh everything. Sometimes fresh herbs are simply unavailable, and sometimes it all becomes too expensive to contemplate. Do the best you can and enjoy the process.

With warmth,

Jess

Journeying into the world of herbs and plant-based medicine

I moved to Charleston, South Carolina about six months ago and I had almost no idea why,  only knowing that I was vaguely drawn here. I was two months post-breakup, heart-broken and lost. I had established my own online design studio (www.alchemy-design-studio.com) a few months prior, but was by no means financially solvent yet from that venture. I went home to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire to lick my wounds and recover amongst loved-ones. But really, I was a shell of a human when I moved to Charleston. I picked up a really neat writing job with a company based down here in before leaving, and so, without ever having even stepped foot into the city, I packed my bags and my Maine Coon Cat, Pan, and set out on a new adventure.

After a scary but exhilarating couple of months here, I started to slowly but surely find my people. One day, my yoga teacher and friend told me about a 7-month Herbal Apprenticeship that was beginning in January and was being lead by an amazingly-talented and wise woman, and something in my soul gave a leap. “Yes!” my heart and spirit said. And so I followed. And so began my journey into herbal medicine, and perhaps my reason for being here.

I want this to be a living journal of what I learn and discover along the way. Some entries may seem random, some may only have three words… and that’s okay. I am first and foremost writing this for myself, and secondly for my friends and family who are interested in what I’m learning. As I progress, I would be thrilled if my audience could expand to include those also interested in herbs (join in at any time and welcome!) and those who know significantly more about plant-based medicine than I do. I arrive here with the utmost respect for the generations who have come before me who have graciously passed their immense knowledge of herbs down, person to person. If I can play some small role in continuing the passing of this knowledge from one person to the next, then my soul will sing and I will feel a part of the immense web of knowledge that is present but mostly forgotten in our hearts.

Cheers!

With love and light,

Jess